Abstract
The question of what types of units and domains are needed in order to capture phonological change is a reasonable one to ask. To answer this question, however, we first need to properly define how we understand phonological change, and the definition that we adopt for that clearly depends on the phonological framework that is assumed. I consider several influential frameworks here and then come to the conclusion that the same condition holds for all of them: change can only be described in terms of the same units (and domains) as are used for synchronic description. This leads to the following conclusion: the set of units for phonological change is a subset of the set of units that are needed for synchronic phonological description. However, it is also unlikely that some units needed for synchronic description can be fully ignored for all descriptions of changes, which leads us to the conclusion that the set of units that are needed for phonological change is also a superset of that set. The sets are thus equal: the phonological units needed for synchronic description are the units needed to account for phonological change, and the question above is meaningless.
Highlights
The question of what types of units and domains are needed in order to capture phonological change is a reasonable one to ask
In the following subsections I aim to show that, for key prominent phonological frameworks, the set of units needed for diachronic description is a subset of the units that are needed for synchronic work
This amounts, modulo footnote 2, to an argument that this is a usual relation between these sets; while there is no formal unavoidability, any units used in historical phonology which are not used in synchronic description should be viewed with suspicion
Summary
It is relatively obvious that each subfield of any science, linguistics included, must define the units (both minimal, units par excellence, and bigger, so-called domains) that it uses to describe its object of study. For our purposes, both synchronic phonology, the science of describing phonological systems ( — phonologies1) at a static position, and diachronic phonology, the science of describing changes of phonologies, need to define their respective units.
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